The night was deep. Behind the Huguo Temple, the eunuch Cao Jin stood aside, looking at the figure standing alone in the pagoda forest for a long time, feeling very puzzled.
A new emperor appoints his own ministers. He was a minister of the previous emperor. After the previous emperor passed away, he thought he would be abandoned. Unexpectedly, after the crown prince ascended the throne, he continued to entrust him with important tasks and trusted him in everything. He was grateful and naturally served him more loyally.
To the west of Hexi, at the foot of the Tianshan Mountains at the end, there is an isolated city called Jincheng. In the past two years, after being forced to stay away from Hexi, the northerners have set their sights on the Tianshan Mountains. Although there are only two thousand soldiers stationed in Jincheng, these two thousand people have not only defeated the invading foreign races many times and crushed their attempts to seize this stronghold, but the isolated city has also stood firm and become a security guarantee for the south of the Tianshan Mountains. The passage connecting Hexi and the Western Regions, which had been cut off for decades since the previous dynasty, is now open again.
The merchants' camel caravans are traveling back and forth between the Western Regions and Hexi again. Not only that, today, the court received a message that the Western Regions' Dayuan, Parthia, and Yuezhi countries admired the prosperity and prosperity of the Eastern Kingdom, but the roads were blocked before, but now they are unimpeded, and they will send envoys to the east to pay homage to the emperor and exchange what they have.
This news made all the civil and military officials in the court feel honored, but for some reason, after the young emperor retired from court today, he did not seem excited. Instead, after dark, he quietly left the palace and came here. His behavior was abnormal and puzzling.
The boy's gaze was fixed on the depths of Tallinn, and suddenly, his back moved slightly.
"Cao Jin, how did you recognize the late emperor in the past?" He asked without turning back.
The eunuch was silent for a moment, and then said, "I was born in a lowly family, with an incomplete lower body. When I was seven, my parents sold me to a ship owner who was sailing on the Yangtze River for two strings of copper coins. That man treated me like a dog, and I worked on his ship and was bullied by him. When I was thirteen, he lost a package of goods from a guest and paid some money. That night, he had a drink on the ship and took out his anger on me. He took off my clothes, tied me up with ropes, and burned my lower body with a candle. I was in unbearable pain and begged him to let me go. He was willing to do anything for me, but he laughed even louder. Just when I was about to faint from the pain, I saw a man who was only a few years older than me suddenly emerged from the bottom of the water, got on the ship and killed the ship owner..."
He was clearly talking about tragic past events, but his tone was very calm, as if it was all about someone else. Only when he said this did his tone pause and turn low.
"That man was the late emperor. He was wounded, pale, wet from head to toe, and bleeding. After killing the ship owner, he threw the body into the water, sat where the ship owner had just been drinking, poured a glass of wine, drank it, and turned around to ask the slave if she wanted to follow him and work for him."
"This is how I was able to serve the late emperor."
After the eunuch finished speaking, he saw that the young man in front of him did not say anything. He hesitated, bowed and said, "Your Majesty, it's getting late. We should go back."
The young man stood there for a moment, then turned away silently. After leaving the temple, he quietly entered the palace under the escort of his entourage, just as he would leave the palace.
The young man was in a trance, and walked with heavy steps to the gate of Yuanchen Palace. The palace servants knelt to greet him and said, "Your Majesty, the Queen Mother has just arrived in Beijing, and she is now in the Imperial Study."
The young man looked up at the brightly lit palace gate ahead, and joy quickly filled his eyes. He took a few steps at a time and hurriedly climbed the palace steps.
The usual royal majesty was no longer visible on this young man; he almost ran quickly inside.
There were no palace maids in the hall, only a woman. She was standing facing the window. Although her back was facing away, the young man still recognized her at a glance.
"Mother!"
He was so excited that he couldn't help but call her that.
Mu Fulan turned around and her eyes fell on his face.
She must have been in a hurry to get to the capital, and her face still looked a little tired, but her eyes were solemn, unprecedentedly so.
The young man immediately noticed something unusual about her and suddenly felt a sense of fear in his heart.
His heart sank slightly. He stopped, stood in front of her, and said with a smile: "Mother, why did you come back so suddenly? Why didn't you tell your son in advance so that he could pick you up?"
Mu Fulan looked into his eyes, stared at him, and said nothing.
The young man hesitated and said softly: "Mom, what's wrong with you? Are you okay..."
"Xi'er, I came here to ask you, are you hiding something from me?"
She spoke each word with certainty, and when she said "deceived me", her voice was slightly harsh.
The last trace of smile on the boy's lips froze.
He looked at his mother, and slowly lowered his eyes.
He knelt down before her, bowed deeply, and touched his forehead to the ground.
Mu Fulan looked at the young man kneeling at her feet. Suddenly, the last bloody scene of her previous life flashed before her eyes. At this moment, her heart suddenly ached again, just like the feeling she had many years ago when she was reborn into this world and thought of her lost Xier. It was exactly the same. It was heart-wrenching.
For a moment, she could hardly breathe.
That man in this world has never died. He is still alive.
She clenched her fists tightly, her nails digging deep into her palms.
"When did you know?" Her voice was a little vague.
The boy still knelt at her feet as he had done a moment ago, without saying a word, his shoulders gradually trembling.
"I want you to say it!" Mu Fulan suddenly shouted.
The boy was shocked, and finally raised his head, his eyes red.
"Do you still remember that year when you took me out of Hexi and into Pucheng to avoid the war? After I came out, I told you that I had that dream. It was true. I had that dream that night in Pucheng. Mother, you told me at that time that my dream was just a dream and told me not to think about it. After I came back, I wanted to listen to you and forget it. But I couldn't forget it because I dreamed of the same thing again and again. Although you didn't say it, I knew that you wouldn't want to see me dreaming about this kind of thing all the time, so I never told you again. I acted as if nothing had happened in front of you because I didn't want you to worry about me."
"More than a year passed like this. One night, I had that dream again. After waking up, I felt extremely sad. Mother, I always felt that what I dreamed of seemed to have really happened. But I didn't want to believe that my father would treat you like this. That night, I couldn't sleep anymore, and I took out the sword he had given me before. After pulling it out, I accidentally cut my hand, and blood flowed on the sword..."
"Mother, you may think I am talking nonsense. But every word I said is true. At the moment when my blood was stained on the sword, I remembered everything, everything from the past. I finally understood all your pain, mother, and why you had such an attitude when facing him."
"In this life, no matter how good he was to me, I can never forgive him. Whenever I think of you, mother, being hung upside down on the city wall after your death, I cannot forgive you. He must be punished. So later, I took advantage of his guilt, took away his throne, and finally forced him to leave. Mother, I shouldn't have lied to you, but if he was still in front of you and he was still alive, how could you really let go of the past and live a good life?"
The boy's eyes were red, his voice was choked, and he kowtowed to her again.
"Mother! Please forgive me..."
Mu Fulan stood with her eyes closed, as if in a trance.
"He's not dead, so where has he been?"
After a long time, she finally opened her eyes and asked.
The boy paused.
"Jincheng..." he said in a low voice.
Mu Fulan turned around and took a step forward.
"Mother!"
The boy reached out and grabbed the hem of her skirt.
"Jincheng is too far away. The soldiers were replaced by his son. After he went there, none of the new soldiers recognized who he was."
"He won't die so soon. My son knew that his old injury had not healed yet, so he sent someone to find Medicine Master and asked him to go there."
"What he got today is the punishment he deserves, and he himself has no complaints. Mother, he doesn't deserve your forgiveness!"
Mu Fulan turned her head.
She said, "Have you ever thought about why he didn't take advantage of the victory and send troops to destroy the small court that went south? If my guess is correct, he should have been aware of your plan at that time. But he still went to pacify the north by himself and left the small court behind. This gave you this opportunity to gain merit and prestige in front of your subjects."
The young man was stunned, and his hand that was clutching the hem of her skirt slowly loosened, and finally slipped down weakly.
"I have been getting one thing wrong all along," Mu Fulan continued.
"In this life, from the morning when I opened my eyes in Xie County, I am no longer the me of my previous life. You are no longer the Xi'er of your previous life. And Xie Changgeng, he is even less the Xie Changgeng of his previous life! None of us are our previous selves anymore, but we have all fallen into a cage, trapped in our own trap, without even realizing it and not looking back."
"He doesn't have to bear the guilt for something he didn't do. I need to get to know someone again and live for myself, and you—"
She lowered her head and looked down at the young man who was still kneeling on the ground, looking up at her.
"Listen to me, since he is willing to give you this throne, you should be the emperor of this world, no matter whether you still recognize him or not. This way, you will live up to the fate of this life."
She said, and walked away.
The young man stared at her receding back. Suddenly, he got up from the ground, ran after her, threw himself behind her, and knelt down again.
"Mother! Is it really Xier's fault? Mother—" The young man's voice was choked and echoed in her ears.
Mu Fulan paused for a moment, then raised her head and continued walking forward, leaving the palace. Her figure gradually disappeared among the numerous palaces in the night.